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Three trends are currently driving the global electricity sector: decarbonization, decentralization and differentiation. Utilities are making significant contributions to mitigate carbon emissions, while a technology revolution is …

Greece gets approval for €8.3bn after meeting troika’s conditions

An informal meeting of finance ministers from the eurozone on Tuesday (1 April) approved a payment of €8.3 billion as part of Greece’s bail-out, after the ‘troika’ of international lenders had found that the country had met all the conditions for the disbursement.

The move ends six months of uncertainty, during which the troika – the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – maintained that Greece had not done enough to implement promised economic reform. The payment should ensure that Greece faces no cash-flow problems between now and the end of the year. Greece is due to repay some €9bn in bonds held by the European Central Bank next month.

The ministers’ approval became possible when Greece’s parliament, with a wafer-thin majority, adopted further reform measures on Sunday (30 March). In the process, the centre-right New Democracy of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras lost another member of parliament, who was expelled from the party for voting against the bill. Just 152 deputies in the 300-member parliament backed the first part of the reform, with 151 voting in favour of the second part. George Papandreou, former leader of centre-left Pasok and a former prime minister, was among those opposing parts of the bill, precipitating angry recrimination among the Pasok leadership.

The €8.3bn payment approved on Tuesday is part of Greece’s second bail-out package from the troika, and €6.3bn is to be paid out by the end of April, after Germany’s Bundestag has given its approval. Two further instalments of €1bn are due in June and July if Greece meets the conditions imposed. Greece received the two bail-outs, worth €240bn, in exchange for a pledge to undertake deep structural reform, a process monitored by the troika. Officials say there has been no discussion yet of a third bail-out.

In a statement, the eurozone finance ministers said: “The Eurogroup reiterates its appreciation for the efforts made by the Greek citizens and notes with satisfaction that the fiscal performance is on track to exceed the programme targets in 2013 and meet them in 2014, allowing Greece to provide additional financing for debt servicing and to undertake some one-off spending in 2014 to bolster social cohesion. Good progress is also being made on structural reforms.”

Just as Greece’s troubles are receding, anxieties about the state of France’s public finances are rising. Pierre Moscovici, France’s finance minister, did not attend the meeting in Athens because President François Hollande was preparing a government reshuffle, announced yesterday – in which Moscovici lost his job.

The European Commission has already given France more time to meet a budget-deficit target of 3% of national output, but the latest projections suggest that France will miss the target again next year. Its pleas for more leeway provoked a rebuke from Olli Rehn, the commissioner for the euro, this week.